Side Table (MY Collection) by Michael Young Polished Stainless Steel and Enamel

About

The collection consists of a chair, a side table, a writing desk, a round coffee table, a console and a lounge chair. All the work in the collection will be composed of polished stainless steel with white enamel surfaces. Each piece consists of a cluster of hollow metal extrusions capped at each end and covered with enamel.
One of the essential qualities of the series is that the pattern is integral to the structure and form, not merely a surface decoration. The design is formed from the structure, rather than a superficial subjective intervention as with traditional methods. Whereas, traditional enamel techniques were applied to copper, here a new process has been developed with an innovative formulation that will allow the enamel to bond with steel.
“The concept came in two ways,” Young says. “A while back, I had worked with cloisonne´ in Northern China and began to look at how patterns and colours came together and how metal could be shaped to create divisions of form. Some of my earlier attempts were inspired by oil on water and the natural patterns generated by this when taken in a snapshot. For Gallery ALL, we looked at these in a new way by self generating forms created by the computer, and then we extracted the patterns in two dimensional slices.”
“We had differentiated various functional forms into seating, consoles and tables,” he says. “Next we applied these patterns so they would then be twisted into 3 dimensions and extruded vertically. In production you cannot colour the vertical surfaces of the pieces, so we played with making a stunning polished edge ”
“The metal is molded around huge clay forms, and the internal structure is created over several weeks. It is completely artisanal, and there is no other way to produce this than with historical methods combined with contemporary craft techniques”.